Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a flexible safety cap for accommodating tool shafts or other objects of different diameters wherein the safety cap includes a terminating front wall and an oppositely disposed clamping opening. The flexible safety cap has at least one acting clamping profile to establish a clamping connection between an outside circumference of the tool and an inside wall of the safety cap.
Discussion of the Prior Art
Cup-shaped safety caps made of a plastic material having a relatively low intrinsic elasticity are known from the prior art. On one end, the cup-shaped safety cap, according to the prior art, forms a clamping opening into which a shaft of a tool can be inserted.
According to the prior art, the cup-shaped safety cap has a cylindrical cross section so, consequently, the clamping opening also has a cylindrical shape. There is, therefore, the disadvantage that shafts of different diameters can be accommodated to a very limited extent because of the low intrinsic elasticity of the known safety cap.
By way of example, in the prior art a tool shaft which may be embodied as a drill tip, as a drill bit, as an awl or the like may be reliably clamped; reliably only in the range of approx. 10 to 11 mm for a safety cap diameter of 10 mm. If shafts of a larger diameter are to be inserted and clamped in a safety cap of such dimensions, there is the disadvantage that the shafts will contact the inside wall of the safety cap with a high level of friction. This creates a risk that, when the tool shaft is pulled out of the safety cap, abrasion particles from the inside wall of the safety cap might be entrained with the shaft while it is being extracted. When such a known safety cap is used for packaging surgical tools and instruments, such abrasion has unwanted consequences if particles are entrained when the tool is extracted with a suitably shaped blade or tip design, because these particles inadvertently enter the surgical field.
The known safety cap according to the prior art has low intrinsic elasticity due to the circular or rotationally symmetrical geometry of a cup shape, so that only shafts with a diameter that is only slightly different from the diameter of the safety cap can be reliably clamped.
Handling of such a safety cap is difficult because it is also difficult to remove the safety cap from the tool tip if there is a reliable degree of clamping. A compressive force may be applied by finger pressure to the side walls of the safety cap to apply a tensile force to the safety cap, but this also can cause tightening of a clamping connection between the inside wall of the safety cap and the outside circumference of the tool. The clamping is thus increased in an undesirable manner during extraction of the tool. This results in an even greater risk of particles being abraded from the inside wall of the safety cap and entrained with the tool being extracted.
Clamping is neither possible nor provided for small diameters to be clamped, such as, for example, those existing with syringes that are surrounded by a sleeve-shaped safety cap. When such a sensitive syringe tip is released from the safety cap, there is a high risk of damage to the tip or the blade connected to the tip.
Consequently, a cup-shaped safety cap according to the prior art has the disadvantage that it cannot and must not be used for clamping surgical instruments and objects due to the risk of entrainment of particles from the inside wall of the safety cap.